Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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This invention relates to delimbing apparatus for use
in delimbing felled trees.
A number of different kinds of delimbing apparatus are
known in the logging art. Some of these require the use of choker
cables for the purpose of drawing the felled trees through the
delimbing apparatus. Choker cables are inconvenient to use,
requiring a good deal of time and labour for the attaching and
detaching of the cables. Other machines are known which are
capable of delimbing individual felled trees, using knives or
rigidly mounted braaking elements to strip the branches from the
trees.
The present invention provides an improved delimbing
apparatus which may conveniently be used on a vehicle and is
adapted to delimb several trees simultaneously. To this end,
the felled trees are arranged to lie generally parallel on the
ground, and the vehicle bearing the apparatus according to the
invention passes over them. As the vehicle passes over them,
the delimbing apparatus simultaneously strips branches from the
group of felled trees.
To this end, the invention comprises a frame and a
plurality of delimbing arms pivotally mounted on the frame and
protruding outwardly therefrom. The pivotally mounted arms are
restrained from movement parallel to the pivotal axis so as to
provide a rigid breaking arm or slicing arm (either a breaking or
slicing element could be used as desired). These delimbing arms
are spaced from one another by approximately the average diameter
of the tree trunks for which the apparatus is designed. However,
since the individual delimbing arms are pivotally mounted, they
are able to accommodate themselves to varying diameters of tree
trunk, at least within certain limits. These pivotally mounted
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delimbing arms are preferably spring loaded on the frame so that
they are biased to their normal outwardly protruding orientation.
Furthermore, the spring loading tends to ensure that the de-
limbing arms maintain fairly close contact with the tree trunk
as the delimbing process is being effected.
The delimbing apparatus may conveniently be mounted
on a vehicle supporting the same in much the same manner as a
plow is mounted on a bulldozer, i.e. on hydraulically-actuated
extending arms. The vehicle may conveniently be an articulated
vehicle provided with a conventional boom and grapple arrange-
ment at one end for grasping a group of trees and laying them
generally parallel on the ground, and having the frame and
delimbing arms in accordance with the invention mounted at the
other end of the vehicle. Once the trees are arranged on the
ground, the vehicle preferably moves from the top of trees
down to the cut-off ends of the trees, with the frame and
delimbing arms being lowered for fairly close contact with the
tree trunks at the front end of the vehicle as it moves over
the trees, whereby the frame and delimbing apparatus remove
branches from the trees as the vehicle passes over the trees.
,
It has been found that improved delimbing results
when the delimbing arms are alternately mounted in parallel
rows, the rows being generally perpendicular to the pivot axes.
Embodiments of the invention will be further described
with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a side elevation view of an articulated
vehicle including a conventional boom and grapple arrangement
at one end and an embodiment of the frame and delimbing
apparatus in accordance with the present invention at the other
end;
Figure 2 is a perspective view of the frame and
spring-loaded pivotally mounted delimbing elements in accordance
11~53~;3
with one embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 3 is a side section view of the frame and a
representative delimbing element of the embodiment of Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a perspective view of a vehicle provided
with the delimbing apparatus of Figure 2, in operating condition.
Figure 5 is a schematic front view of the embodiment
~ of Figure 2 showing the manner in which the individual delimbing
- arms are able to deflect to accommodate tree trunks of varying
diameters.
Figure 6 is an alternative embodiment showing the
delimbing arms extending vertically upward from the frame.
In Figure 1 an articulated vehicle 10 is shown of
the type frequently used in logging operations and sometimes
referred to as a "skidder". At one end of the vehicle 10 is
provided a conventional boom and grapple arrangement generally
indicated as 12. At the other end of the vehicle support arms
14 are pivotally mounted to extend forward of the vehicle (to
the left as illustrated in Figure 1). The support arms 14 are
movable about pivot axis 16 by means of a conventional hydraulic
cylinder 18 and connecting piston extension 20.
On the underside of support 14 a frame 22 is mounted
whose structure is illustrated in greater detail in Figure 2.
The frame 22 has a solid upper wall 24, solid front and back
walls 26, 28 and front and rear flanged portions 30, 32. The
frame is suitably provided with end walls such as end wall 25,
27 respectively. These may be welded or bolted into the rest
of the frame, which may be a single generally U-shaped steel
channel element. Pivotally mounted between the front and rear
walls 26, 28 are a plurality of protruding delimbing elements.
They are arranged alternately in two rows, those in the front
row being designated by reference numeral 34 and those in
the back row being designated by reference numeral 36.
:
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The delimbing elements 34 and 36 are pivotally
mounted about shafts 38 located in opposing holes in the front
and rear walls 26, 28 of the frame 22. These shafts may
conveniently be provided with one flanged end 40 (see Figure 3)
and the other end 42 of the shaft 38 may conveniently have an
outer diameter just slightly smaller than the diameter of the
holes in the walls 26, 28 into which the shaft 38 is located.
A locking key 44 or the like retains the shaft 38 in position.
Each delimbing element 36 may conveniently be welded
or otherwise securely fixed to a cylindrical sleeve 46 rotatably
mounted on the shaft 38. One end of the sleeve 46 abuts against
either the front wall 26 or rear wall 28, and the other end of
the sleeve 46 is provided with a collor 48 welded or otherwise
fixed to the frame 22. The collar 48 is provided with an
inwardly-directed projecting apertured flange 50. The delimbing
element fixed to the sleeve 46 is provided with an upper exten-
sion 52 which is provided with an inwardly directed apertured
flange 54 pointing generally at the flange 50.
Between the inner surface 56 of the delimber element
and the inner surface 58 of the collar 48, a coil spring 60
is located, wrapped around the sleeve 46. The extremities
of the coil spring 60 are continued as spring extension elements
62,64. The spring extension 62 is anchored in the apertured
flange 54 and the spring extension 64 is anchored in the
apertured flange 50 so as to maintain the delimbing element in
its normal generally vertically downward position. If the de-
limbing element is deflected about its pivotal axis by a deflect-
ing force, coil spring 60 will be stressed and will resist the de-
flecting force, tending to return the delimbing element to its
normal generally vertically downward orientation once the de-
flecting force is removed.
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In operation, the vehicle 10 uses its boom and grapple
to arrange a plurality of felled trees with their trunks
generally parallel to one another along the ground. The
vehicle lO then passes over the trees with the frame 22 in the
lead and making contact with the tree trunks, preferably
proceeding from the top of the felled trees towards the cut-off
base. Figure 4 illustrates the vehicle moving in this direc-
tion. The hydraulic support arrangement for the support arms
14 is slackened to permit the frame 22 to make contact with the
trunks of the felled trees. The vehicle 10 then advances
longitudinally along the trunks, the delimbing elements 34 and
36 breaking off or slicing branches from the trees as the
vehicle lO passes over the tree trunks. Preferably as many
trees are laid out on the ground at one time as conveniently
can be accommodated by the width of the frame 22. Since the
spacing of the felled trees is unpredictable and since the
diameters of the felled trees will vary within a certain range,
the spring loaded delimbing elements 34 and 36 will in general
have to deflect a certain extent to accommodate the tree
trunks between them. Figure 5 illustrates schematically this
accommodation of tree trunks of varying spacing and diameter
by the delimbing elements. Because the delimbing elements
are spring loaded, they will tend to maintain contact with
the tree trunks, provided that the spacing of the delimbing
elements is approximately the same as the average diameter
of the tree trunks and provided that the range of diameters
of the tree trunks is not too extreme. Generally speaking,
the spacing between adjacent delimbing elements will be chosen
to accommodate the average tree trunk diameter for which the
delimbing apparatus is intended.
It will be noted that since the delimbing elements 34 and
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36 are welded or otherwise fixed to the sleeves 46, they are
unable to deflect in the direction of movement of the vehicle 10
with respect to the felled trees, and thus they are effective to
break or slice the branches from the trees. The delimbing
elements in the shape of rectangular parallelepiped made of steel
or other suitable material, as illustrated in Figure 2, are
suitable for breaking off the limbs of the felled trees. They
could be provided with sharpened edges for slicing off the limbs,
but in general the breaking rather than the slicing action is
preferred simply to avoid the nuisance of having to sharpen the
slicing elements from time to time.
By providing the delimbing elements in two parallel rows,
a more effective delimbing is obtained, since the second row of
` delimbing elements can sometimes break off branches which were
missed by the first row of delimbing elements because the first
row elements were engaged with other branches. In other words,
having the second row of delimbing elements tends to facilitate
a more complete removal of branches from the trees than would be
; the case if only a single row of delimbing elements were used. A
third row or additional rows of delimbing elements could be
provided if desired.
Alternatively, instead of being mounted upon a vehicle,
the delimbing apparatus of Figure 2 could be inverted and mounted
on a suitable platform so that the felled trees could be drawn over
the delimbing device instead of having the delimbing device pass
over the felled trees. Such an arrangement is illustrated in
Figure 6.
Other modifications and variations of the apparatus
illustrated and described herein will occur to those skilled in
the art. The invention is not to be construed as limited to the
specific embodiment described but it is to be given the full scope
set forth in the appended claims.
